Near miss this morning (was I in the wrong)

andygb

neilmcl wrote: »

You overtook a stationary vehicle without check your mirrors, so yes you were (at least partly) to blame. The rider should share the blame for not reading the road conditions at the time and attempting an overtake in a dangerous position.

Ah, at last, the wisdom of Soloman:beer:

Exactly as I read the situation, and I say this as someone who has both full bike and car licences. As a bike rider, I was never fond of going down the outside of traffic making normal progress, and as a car driver, I always check my mirrors (and give a "lifesaver" look over my right shoulder), indicate and then move out.

fred7777

Velcro_Hotdog wrote: »

I’m now beginning to question myself...was I in the wrong?

It all depends on where the motorbike was when you moved out. The highway code says:

Before overtaking you should make sure

• the road is sufficiently clear ahead
• road users are not beginning to overtake you
• there is a suitable gap in front of the road user you plan to overtake.

So the rider failed on the first point as the road ahead wasn't clear and had parked cars.

You may be at fault on point two depending on where the rider was when you started to move over. If he was alongside you then to him it would look like you were trying to push him across the road. If he was behind you then if doesn't have much to complain about.

colino

The bike didn't appear by magic. You changed position without (ever?) checking your mirrors and the biker, properly trained in defensive driving, avoided the collision.
You should never cause another road user to change speed or direction by your actions, your not policing the roads. How often do you check your mirrors? If it's more than 10 seconds, it's too long.

Velcro_Hotdog

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

Did you know where the biker was before you pulled out?
If not, is there anything that you could have done to know where he was? If so, then you were in the wrong as you should have done that. If not, there's nothing different you could have done so not your fault.

If you did know where the biker was, was it clear that he was planning on overtaking you? In which case indicating might have helped. E.g. if he's just overtaken each of the last three cars behind you it's pretty clear he'll want to overtake you. Likewise if he has been behind you for sometime and keeps hovering as if he is going to overtake. But if he's just been behind you for some time quite happily I'd say there was nothing else you could have done.

Wasn't in the rear view mirror thats for sure. I think I missed him either in my side mirror or he was in my blind spot. Lesson learned here for me

molerat

2 motorcyclists here in the past few weeks overtaking a line of slow moving traffic and t-boned the car turning right.

RichardD1970

colino wrote: »

The bike didn't appear by magic. You changed position without (ever?) checking your mirrors

You don't know that you weren't there

and the biker, properly trained in defensive driving

If he was so well trained at defensive riding, why was he overtaking a row of cars making normal progress along the road

avoided the collision.

You should never cause another road user to change speed or direction by your actions, your not policing the roads.

Who said anything about policing the roads? Don't get where your coming from there!

How often do you check your mirrors? If it's more than 10 seconds, it's too long.

No one is perfect and mistakes happen, but from what has been posted I feel the OP is, if not total blameless, then at least less to blame than the bike, and has taken the incident on board and hopefully became a bit of a better driver. (we could all be better)

PS I drive a car, ride a scooter and cycle so am not biased in any way.

System

RichardD1970 wrote: »

PS I drive a car, ride a scooter and cycle so am not biased in any way.

you mean you are just jealous of bikes that can perform overtaking manoeuvres!? :rotfl:

RichardD1970

the_r_sole wrote: »

you mean you are just jealous of bikes that can perform overtaking manoeuvres!? :rotfl:

, quite happy with my Scooter thanks, it will exceed the speed limit on all the roads that I ride it on.

Portly_Pig

Hintza wrote: »

I think your wring on this one Neil. The biker was driving (at least) without due care and consideration and possibly worse.

Was he, how?

You must have seen this incident then. The op didn't see the bike and hasn't commented on the riding so please tell up how it was ridden carelessly.

Horizon81

Ok lets imagine for a minute the OP had noticed the bike about to overtake him as he was just about to pass the parked cars. The OP would then stop behind the parked cars to let the bike pass him safely.

It would have avoided any drama but surely the biker was still in the wrong for causing the car driver to stop to allow him to pass safely?